Even though I usually take a break from cooking on the weekend, I managed to do a bit on my refreshingly unscheduled Saturday.

First up: Gluten-Free Banana Walnut Muffins

You’ll need (makes a dozen muffins):

2 ripe bananas

3/4 C walnut pieces

2 1/4 C almond flour

1/2 C honey (you could also use maple syrup)

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t baking powder

4 eggs

2 t vanilla

3 t cinnamon

1 t nutmeg

Make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients except walnuts in a large mixing bowl.

Mix well, then fold in walnuts.

Grease muffin tin well, and fill cups up 3/4 of the way.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

I basically ate like three muffins for dinner. Then, I went to see Alice in Wonderland. Good stuff. After I came back, I wasn’t exactly hungry for dinner, but I wanted a little snack. What I created fit the bill perfectly. Enter Spicy Pepper Poppers, my delicious version of bar food.

I just took half a de-seeded bell pepper, stuffed it with baby spinach and pieces of Kerry Gold Dubliner cheese (you could use any cheese you have/like, but I liked the sharpness of the Dubliner), and then microwaved the whole thing for about two minutes. After cooking, I added crushed red pepper (for the spice), salt, and pepper

The pepper got soft, but still had a little bit of crunch, and the cheese and spinach melted together. I swear, this was just as good as those fried jalapeno poppers. Definitely making that again.